How to Avoid Being the Ugly American
How to Avoid Being the Ugly American
Lome, Togo West Africa
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com
I was surfing around and stumbled upon some over-zealous pages trying to explain about something silly, and not a problem unless you make it a problem.
How to avoid being the Ugly American?
I was laughing to myself, this is really easy,
- Do not talk to Europeans or Americans and you will be loved. -
Can you imagine telling a French guy to stop acting French.
Can you imagine telling an African person to not act African.
This just is not politically correct, I doubt you would do it, it is bad manners.
Why would you allow someone to insult you.
What everyone wants is you, an American to stop acting American, and act European or whatever country they are from, come on, this is a silly suggestion.
Be a good fief, obey, they know they must obey, and they want to say no, this is all about power, not about this silly story of being Ugly, most Asian think all white people are American, and we do look the same to them.
I never apologize for being American, the greatest way to ask for huge problems is to act weak in a world full of abusive cultures. Then again, I do not sit around a listen to people insult my country, just is not a good mannered person, and to be avoided.
How to Avoid Being the Ugly American
Labels: Culture, Togo, USA Culture
2 Comments:
Andy,
Americans have no monopoly on ugly. Certainly there's nothing to apologize for.
I think it's simply just a stereotype thats been applied, in some cases appropriately, in other cases falsely. However, I find it impossible that any individual from anywhere can be truly defined by a stereotypical description of a population within a geopolitical area, or their government.
With Wikipedias help...
"Sander Gilman PHD, a distinguished professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences at Emory University argues that stereotypes, by definition, are never accurate representations, but a projection of an individual's fears onto others, regardless of the reality of others."
Interesting that in the 1963 book The Ugly American ...
"... the authors' "good" characters used their skills and resources to make a positive change in the lives of villagers in Southeast Asia and the "bad" characters used their skills and resources for other purposes. For example there is an "ugly" engineer who helps villagers with an irrigation system, and a "handsome" Ambassador who does not care about what happens to the people on the village level."
Connected to your earlier post...
If/when (who knows, maybe never) the entire planet is fully globalized (Planetary Phase of Civilization), whom then will some people project their fears toward and call ugly?
When you point a finger, three are usually pointing back.
Eric
I agree with Eric. No nationality is perfect. God bless America.
www.myspace.com/djhams
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